Yesterday I had a chance to help train mediators for a California Lawyers for the Arts program that provides mediation and other ADR services for artists. Calfornia Lawyers for the Arts also runs a well-developed lawyer referral program. What was interesting to me about the group’s ADR program is the separation they try to maintain between legal services and ADR services. They take care to screen new cases to determine whether the client needs legal advice or resolution of a dispute, and they instruct the program’s mediators not to give legal advice during mediation sessions, instead only to suggest to participants that they consult an attorney if they feel they need legal advice. In mediation parlance, it’s a facilitative, rather […]

Imagine if one could flip a switch that would cause all the parties to a conflict to change their approach from an adversarial mode of conflict resolution to a problem-solving, or negotiation mode. In other words, stop arguing with one another, and start talking and listening to one another. That is one way of thinking about what mediators do, and of course it is never as easy as flipping a switch. On the other hand, it doesn’t necessarily even require a mediator to make the transition. On my political blog, I posted something–inspired by my rabbi’s Rosh Hashanah sermon–about the difference between a crisis model and a values model. He was talking about Israel, but the concepts apply to any […]

Joseph C. Markowitz

Joseph C. Markowitz has published this blog, focusing on mediation and other forms of conflict resolution, since 2009. Mr. Markowitz practices law under the name "Law Offices of Joseph C. Markowitz," sharing space with three other attorneys in downtown Los Angeles. He has been in practice since 1980, emphasizing employment law, intellectual property, and general business disputes. Mr. Markowitz was trained as a mediator in 1994, and has served on one state court and two federal court mediation panels, in addition to handling private mediations. He also served as president of the Southern California Mediation Association in 2014.

For more information about Mr. Markowitz’s law and dispute resolution practice, go to jcmarkowitz.com